Zercher Meet

[Al Myers]

Zercher Meet

[Joe Garcia]

I called Cindy up and yelled “I won”. Then laughed. She knew that it was probably just going to be me. Was hoping for Abe or McBride to show up.

[Tom Ryan]

Al,

I don’t know if the Zercher Meet was ever “the meet that everyone wanted to attend”. Bill felt that not everyone had the guts to compete in it, as it is indeed rough on the body. There is not much point in trying to train for about a week after the meet. I competed in the meet from 1987 through 1993, missing one year (probably 1992) when Bill advised me to not make a plane reservation because it looked like the meet would probably be canceled (it wasn’t).

There was not a really long list of entrants during that time interval (maybe 18 or so at most?). Just going from memory, I believe there were 11 competitors in 1987, when the meet was held at the prison in Moberly. I know there were more in the years that directly followed, as Joe and others started competing in it. I recall that one year there was three generations of Zerchers who competed — fitting since it was “their” meet.

I believe there was about 15 or 16 lifts used in the 1987 meet, with the Jefferson lift being one of them. In later years, various lifters, including Brian Meek, John V. and me, did not have any fun at all doing the hack lift because the bar would get stuck behind our knees.

Joe, I applaud you for surviving the 13 lifts in one day (“at your age” :-)), and making good lifts, to boot!

Since Joe mentioned Bill’s Atlanta surgeon, I will add that Bill has celebrity status in that office. The surgeon previously had a photo or two of Bill on his office wall. Now I understand there is a photo of Bill hip lifting 1,620 that is an area that is more readily visible.

I can imagine a patient coming in for consultation before surgery and someone pointing to Bill’s picture and saying “See that old guy. He’s had both hips replaced in addition to various other joint replacements and he is lifting 1,620 pounds. He is an example of what a person can do after joint replacement.” Then I could just imagine the disbelieving patient saying “Yeah, right”. 🙂

Tom

[Al Myers]

Tom – Thanks for that history on the Zercher!! I agree that it probably never has been the “meet everyone wanted to attend”, but in the early days it was always very well represented. I have seen the meet results when the three Zerchers competed (1988), and it looked like a fierce competition. It was a real battle between Steve Schmidt and Phil Anderson, with Steve getting him in the end. I see that you were second in the 40-44 age group to the great powerlifter Brian Meek. Do you remember the lift you beat him in on that day?? Al

[Tom Ryan]

Al,

I remember that 1988 meet somewhat, although not too fondly because of the condition that I was in. I was hospitalized for a week in late November, 1987 with a nasty case of cellulitis, with the doctor worried that I might lose some skin and muscle tissue in my lower left leg. I couldn’t get out of bed for a day or two and when I was finally allowed to walk to the bathroom, moving at a snail’s pace, I noticed when I got there that my ankle and foot were purple. Needless to say, that was a “discomforting” sight!!

But I recovered and by the 7th day I decided that I had had enough of hospital life, so I told the substitute doctor (it was Thanksgiving weekend) that I was leaving. I went by the supermarket on my way home from the hospital (slightly shocking a clerk in the process) and did some Zercher lifts that night as I had to get ready for the meet. (I never considered not lifting in the meet.)

I recall Meek telling me at the meet to take it easy and Bill told me a year or two later that when he saw me lifting on a leg that was still red at the time, he figured I might be on my way to becoming a one-legged lifter!

Of course I was way down in strength and bodyweight, as I believed I weighed in at about 263. I don’t have the meet results at my fingertips, so I’ll have to guess the lift at which I beat Meek. Maybe the one-hand deadlift? Meek and I did swap the record in that lift for our class back and forth over the next few years. Could be the hack lift since neither one of us could do the lift without the bar getting stuck behind our knees, but I’ll go with the one-hand deadlift.

Tom

[Al Myers]

Tom, You beat Meek in the Steinborn!! Not too many lifters can say that they outsquatted Brian Meek in a competition!! Al

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from dinoman on February 2, 2011, 11:06[/b]
Tom, You beat Meek in the Steinborn!! Not too many lifters can say that they outsquatted Brian Meek in a competition!! Al

Al,

If I were smart, I would let this thread end with your last message and let most people who read this think that I must have been a really great squatter on that day! LOL

There are some important explanatory details, however. The Steinborn lift is a big problem for many lifters who encounter it for the first time, and Meek did have major problems. For one thing, he was rather wary at the start, prompting Steve Schmidt to tell him reassuringly “It won’t hurt you”. Then when he tried to get in position to shoulder the weight, he seemed to be rather stiff and had trouble with the position.

I always had my own problems with the lift. At my height of 6-4, I was too tall to shoulder the bar in the conventional manner (which Bill Clark immediately recognized), so I had to initially shoulder the bar on my right shoulder only and then twirl the bar around so that it was across both shoulders. (That in itself was a bit of a chore.) I still had problems even with that method because I would almost have to fold up like an accordion in order to get low enough to shoulder the bar, as having plates that were just a short distance off the platform after I upended the bar created a major leverage problem for me.

After I shouldered the bar, the squat was a piece of cake. At one Zercher Meet, I squatted rock bottom and sat there for a second or two to show Bill how easy the squat portion of the lift was for me. I never did much in the lift, but that was mainly because I had such difficulty shouldering the bar.

The late Bill Fellows was a strong guy in his prime and also later in life. It was either at this meet or a later meet in which he became rather ambitious and tried a Steinborn with 350 or so, if I remember correctly. Bill was about 57 at the time, so that was a lot of weight for someone his age to be trying in that lift, especially since he also tried to use the one-shoulder method. He never came close to shouldering the bar, however, and it was quite a sight to see him repeatedly struggle trying to do so.

Tom

[61pwcc]

I’m new here. I compete in Olympic lifting, Powerlifting, and Strongman. I’ve always done ODD(what I like to call functional)lifts. Sometimes when people ask me about my bodybuilding I reply,”I do anti/negative bodybuilding!” The now confused person wants to know what in the world am I talking about. I say if you took a picture of a bodybuilding routine and printed the NEGATIVE then you’d have my routine!! Now this Zercher meet sounds great!! I need to be in this next time!! How do I get in?? Some of the lifts I’d have to learn about(performance/rules) but 13 events in one day!?!?! YEEHAA now that’ll make ya want to put the lotion on the skin or ya get the hose again!!
In my attic I’ve pulled 500+ on the Jefferson Lift and Hack Squat. Both of these were among the exercises described in the DP training booklet(featuring Bruce Randall) that came with my DP plastic disc/hollow bar weight set back in eighth grade.
My Zercher Squat is about 350+ off the floor. I even used the Zercher harness at Westside Barbell before they started selling it. Man oh man I got to be in this meet next year!!

[Author]

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